I´m gonna use an old Italeri kit of a Leo 2A5 and I will attempt to convert it to a Strv 122.

Good start on your 2A4, Nigel! You have the privilege to be the first builder here .... It will still take some time before I start mine because I'm still working on my "Flyin' Finns" - maybe another 2 weeks.

Thomas, welcome to this campaign and welcome to the Kitmaker family! It's great that your first post is in this thread Great, that you want to build a Strv 122, which we don't have here yet. But why do you use the Italeri kit? Is the Hobbyboss kit not good enough? Don't know about it. But good luck with the splinter camo.

Have a nice weekend all!
Torsten

@Nigel, looks good. I am going to be building the same kit.

We need to get this stickied into the active campaigns area.

Here is my choice:



It's by Meng, and it has a lot of parts! Some of them look very frail, too. Not a fan of dark plastic. The tracks alone look like they were designed by a watchmaker. I've added a Voyager Models metal barrel as the sole piece of AM.

Gaz

For the 40 years build I am building a Canadian Leopard 2a4m Can. This will be the Hobby Boss kit with some upgrades from Leopard workshop in the form of a new barrel, smoke discharger chains and plugs as well as better velcro patches for the Cuda Camo.

Good choice, Gary! How many parts has it? My kit has 212, also dark green plastic and vinyl tracks.
I will write Richard a PM to pin this campaign and mark it as "active" because I can't do that.

Ryan, as I've mentioned before I've also built that kit years ago. It's easy to build. It may have its issues if you take it really serious with some details but the overall view looks like a 2A4 in the end.

John, welcome to this campaign! Your kit looks really tasty! Love the photo of the original. Have updated the campaigners list on page 1. From what I see, Canada is slightly in the lead against Germany, concerning the planned and started builds - just like in ice hockey mostly ....

Enjoy your builds, guys!
Torsten

Thanks for the warm welcome, Torsten. This campaigns was actually the reason I decided to create an account.
The kit by HobbyBoss is probably great,however I chose the Italeri kit for three reasons:
1) Size of my stash: I´m currently attempting to decrease the amount of kits in my stash and purchasing an additional model would be counterproductive.
2) Cost: If I wanted to buy the Strv 122 by HobbyBoss I had to do so online, thus not only spending 20€ on the kit, but also 16-17€ on shipping and I´m not ready to spend basically the same amount on transportation as on the kit itself.
3) Scratchbuilding: I wanted to do some major scratchbuilding/converting for quite some time now and this campaign/kit seems like the perfect opportunity.

All very good reasons to use the old but still adequate Italeri kit! I'm trying not to add to my own stash, but all these new kits keep tempting me astray...

It looks like you'll be taking the kit a step up with those upgrade parts! Excited to see the group build unfold

According to LeoCmder’s review on here, it is a simple plug and play with these aftermarket parts. I just have to remember to switch them out. I started with the hull and have added one whole side of suspension parts.

Starting my build, and will get chassis from this kit:


Turret is from Leopard Workshop's conversion kit that is based on Takom's Marksman turret:


Decals are by Microscale.

I've understood from reviews that there are some inaccuracies in Takom's turret, and I'll try to fix them. Anyway starting from turret. If that fails, I can always fall back to regular 2A4.

All good reasons for your plan, Thomas. But fighting your stash and trying to win is a hopeless undertaking. You will loose that fight .... You sure have also a wish list like everybody else here. The splinter camo on the Strv 122 is quite a challenge. Done something similar last year on the SPH K9FIN "Moukari". It was painting, masking, painting, masking for most of the building time.
That shipping costs are quite high! Do you order local or abroad? We have a dealer in our club and he's only a phone call away. Really dangerous ....

Hej Sverige!


Pasi, welcome to the now active campaign! Can't wait to see your Marksman 2 coming together! Good luck!

This will be my build for the campaign ....

... trying to build a 2A4GR of the Ellinikos Stratos, the Hellenic Army. Will start with it in the next few days and will be strait oob ....

Here's first easy modification:



Conversion set correctly asks to cut additional armor plate from 1 mm plastic sheet, but bottom should be slightly narrower. The darkened area should be removed and turret face bottom shaped accordingly (it's obvious what needs to be done once fitting the new part).

I've tucked into the assembly of the Meng 2A4. One of the early steps is to add the torsion bars to the hull tub.


Another is to add all of the detail parts to the back wall of the hull. But I'm going to save the detail parts for later.
Another view of the torsion bars:


The suspension is very much live. It uses poly caps just like the old Tamiya kits allowing the roadwheels and drive sprockets to turn freely. The tracks are workable too. 84 links per side with 3 pieces per link. And no cement used to assemble the tracks!

Torsten, I scoured the box and directions for a part count. But I couldn't find one. I'm guessing it's a 400-500 part kit with most of the parts going to the tracks.

Once the torsion bars had dried in place, I tested the amount of play available. This allows for a lot of posing if one wants to put the Meng Leopard in an active pose.



I have to say that this is a nice kit. There is a bit of flash, but the moldings look detailed and fit nicely.

Happy Modelling!

Great start, Gaz! My Revell Leo doesn't have movable suspensions. Okay, it's a bit older than your kit. With 84 links per track and 3 pieces per link you have 500 pieces for the tracks alone, Gary!

I have checked a review of that canadian Leo 2A4M John has posted above as I'm very interested to get one, too. They say the kit has about 700 parts just for the tracks, the whole kit has about 950 .... My older HB 2A4, which I've built a couple of years ago, has around 400 parts in total.

Have also started my Hellas Leo but nothing worth to show yet.

Stay safe and have fun!
Torsten

Glued the first few parts together and had already to do some filling and sanding. Found these ugly gaps on the front side ....

.... and at the end of the next day ....


I will have some bench time this coming weekend, so I should make some good progress.

Torsten

Does anyone have any decent photos of the exhaust area on the Leopard II? Or some good pictures of them dirtied up all around?

Thanks for that great link, Michael! So many useful photos for our projects. Thanks!

While strolling through the greek section for my Leo I found this funny photo which made me laugh.
"I want this for the weekend! How much?"

Wow - definitely the rental company for me!

Michael! Great site! Thank you for the link!

Have done a bit of work on my Revell Leo. Not much to see yet though ....


Next step will be painting the carriage and wheels with Grüngrau RAL 7009. I think the Greek don't use the standard NATO colours, which makes this Leo different to others.

Torsten

It's as good a start as any, Torsten!

Here's where I am:


And a look at how to build the tracks:


No cement required!


Happy Modelling!

Update! Got the turret finished and primed. started the hull this morning.